


breathe

by orphan_account



Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28206063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: this is basically me projecting onto lucy chen I'm sorry bae you don't deserve this :))she gets overstimulated at work and guess who's there :))our favourite TO, Tim <33
Relationships: I Wish - Relationship, Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen
Kudos: 50





	breathe

**Author's Note:**

> again im just projecting so much like I'm sorry guys this is so selfish ://
> 
> anyway pls enjoy <3

The lights above her were too bright.   
The noises of people talking were too loud, but there was nothing she could do to escape the stimulation.   
She knew what was happening, but she couldn’t stop or do anything to slow the process of getting overstimulated.   
Her eyes began to lose focus and she felt her breath become shallow.   
Sargent Grey had completely lost her attention at this point.   
She sat still, trying to calm her rapid breaths and stared at her hands to try and avoid looking up and seeing the bright lights.   
She couldn’t block out the noise. She wished she could, but unless she wanted to draw a lot of attention to herself, there was nothing she could do until the briefing was over.   
So, she sat and waited.   
Her breath became increasingly hard to control, her mind spinning out of control and she felt herself retreat into her mind to escape the real world.   
She barely registered chairs scraping along the floor. She was already too far disassociated to understand or even recognize what was happening around her.   
“What are you waiting for, boot?” Tim asked gruffly beside her.   
She recognized his voice, and she tried to look up only to find she was stuck.   
With a breath, she remembered that when she got like this, it was almost impossible for her to try and articulate what she was feeling or even form understandable sentences.   
“Hey, boot, I’m talking to you. What is this, Chen? Some kind of protest?”   
She had to try.   
“I- I ca-can’t-”   
“Well, spit it out.”   
She took a deep breath and tried again.   
“I can’t m-move.” She stated simply, her voice wavering so much she almost cringed at herself. She felt so stupid, getting like this in front of somebody she respected so much.   
“What do you mean you can’t move? Are you injured?” Tim asked, a bit of worry creeping into his voice.   
“Can I uh, h-have some u-uh paper?” She asked. She knew she could write better than she could speak right now.   
“Boot, this isn’t funny. What’s going on?”   
Regardless of how he was feeling, he slid a notebook over to her. He was more curious than upset at this point.   
She closed her eyes for a moment before scribbling on the notebook Tim had provided to her.   
She kept her eyes on the desk as she slid it back to him.   
Tim took a moment to read over what she had written before crouching beside her.   
“Chen, can you look at me?” He asked, his voice becoming significantly softer.   
She brought her gaze upwards and looked at Tim’s shirt collar.   
He spoke more gently than usual, she knew he was trying to coax her out of her head.   
“What happened, Chen?”   
“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t m-mean-”   
“Hey, take your time, ok?”   
She nodded, her eyes beginning to unfog a bit.   
“I guess, uh, something triggered me. I started to t-to dissociate and n-now it’s hard to um m-move.”   
Tim simply nodded.   
“I-i tried-”   
“Boot, it’s fine, There’s nothing you can do now other than wait it out.”   
She nodded, her eyes still locked onto her TO’s shirt collar.   
Her breaths began to even out and she blinked a few times before coming back fully to reality.   
Tim was still crouched in front of her when she came back to.   
“Welcome back, boot.”   
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”   
“It’s not your fault, Chen. Just let me know some way next time, maybe we can stop this before it gets this bad.”   
Lucy smiles a bit.   
“Thanks, Tim.”   
“Well, let’s get to it. We don’t want to miss any more patrol than we already have.”   
With that, Tim got up and Lucy followed behind.


End file.
